In this fast paced PowerPoint Presentation, Larry Schwitters of Issaquah, Washington, will examine Audubon's ongoing citizen science project, Vaux's Happening, launched eight years ago to gather the data necessary to make a compelling case for the preservation of what has proven to be one of the most significant Vaux's Swift communal migratory roost sites in North America. Vaux's Happening quickly expanded into an attempt to locate, raise awareness of, and hopefully preserve the important roost sites used by this species all along their migratory path. In the last fourteen migrations the project has documented over seven million Vaux's Swift roosting events from San Diego to the Yukon. Schwitters will also share images and information captured by the project's chimney surveillance cameras and precision temperature recorders.

Larry Schwitters holds a Master's of Science degree and spent 30 years in the trenches of public education, mostly as a Middle School Science Teacher and Coach in the Seattle area.

He spent four years tracking down Black Swifts at Washington State's waterfalls for the American Bird Conservancy before his involvement with Audubon Vaux's Happening.

Willapa Hills Audubon Society (WHAS) is sponsoring this presentation. For several years, members have participated in the annual count of migrating Vaux Swifts. This fall WHAS will plan a gathering to observe the migrating swifts, to be announced at a later date.

The program is at 7:00 PM, Sunday, March 29, at the Kelso Senior Center, 106 NW 8th, Kelso, WA.

Come join us for food, fun, and fellowship. The annual membership dinner meeting and program for members, family, and friends will be held on Sunday, March 29th with dinner at 5:30 at the Kelso Senior Center. The address is 106 NW 8th, Kelso, WA. This year will be a potluck. WHAS will supply coffee, tea and water. Please bring a potluck dish to share that would feed 8 to 10: salad, dessert, casserole, bread, appetizer, or your own specialty. Let’s make it a green event and bring your own tableware too. The first 40 families to arrive will receive a Charles Kingsland Print. Also there will be other door prizes for those who come. Doors open at 5:15.

If you have questions, call Carol at 360-849-4324 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or contact Gloria at 360-636-3793 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

At 7:00 keynote speaker, Larry Schwitters, will present his program on the Vaux’s Swift monitoring project he manages for Audubon.

The county's first ever Acorn Woodpecker visited a Longview feeder for three days in late November.

Also the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife website had a photo of Snow Bunting taken in December on their Mount Saint Helen's Wildlife Area. Not a source I've ever checked, but I was alerted to it by a friend in Spokane.

This was our eighth year of this project and the averages are beginning to be meaningful. The 197 species in the county this year is above our 191 average but short of the 2011 record of 203.

Lake Sacajawea has many of the over-wintering waterfowl now. A Eurasion Wigeon was spotted on 12/2/14 and other waterfowl seen have been Wood Duck, Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Greater and Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead and even Hooded Merganser. We also have seen many Double-crested Cormorants as well as Pied-billed Grebes. On 12/01/14 a Bald Eagle swooped down and made off with a Gull(did not catch the species) for breakfast.

All this can be seen in our back yard here in Longview just get out, walk the lake and observe. You may even catch a glimpse of one of our resident River Otters.

Willapa Hills Audubon SocietyPassed by Vote of the Board of Directors, June 11, 2014

Whereas: Fossil Fuel Export facilities are proposed at many NW locations including Whatcom County, Grays Harbor County, Coos Bay, at several locations along the Columbia River, and new proposals appear with increasing frequency; and,

Whereas: The increased burning of fossil fuels will lead to increased levels of greenhouse gas in the global environment, pollution, and dangerous climate change; and,

Whereas: The extraction of most newly exportable fossil fuels is most often environmentally unsound, such as mountain-top removal in search of coal, strip coal mining, the fracking process in search of oil and gas, or of poor quality, such as the tar sands oil of Canada; and,

Whereas: The transport of fossil fuels, particularly by rail, is most often dangerous and/or dirty and disruptive, and requires large scale facilities in wetlands and next to ecologically sensitive waterways; and, Whereas: Conservation of United States' fossil fuel resources is a national security and energy independence issue, worthy of detailed debate; and,

Whereas: Conservation of energy in the US is becoming increasingly important; and,

Be it Hereby Resolved: Willapa Hills Audubon opposes all export of fossil fuels from NW American ports, (with the possible exception of derivatives of natural gas, which will be determined on a case by case basis), and that this resolution will stand until changed or amended in future.